ALS Case Studies

ALS is also known as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis is a disease in which the brain, nerves, and spinal cord deteriorate. It attacks every part of the body except the brain. Causing major body malfunction along with muscle weakening. Which includes lack of strength, the ability to move arms, legs and body, eventually you lose the ability to breathe. The average time of life after being diagnosed is two - five years. It was believed to be inherited or maybe an infection. After years of research scientist have found a major

Amyotrophic meaning, “no muscle nourishment” in Greek, lateral meaning where the neurons are in the spinal cord, and sclerosis meaning “scarring.” ALS, often known as “Lou Gehrig’s Disease,” named after the New York Yankee who first brought awareness to the disease in the late 1930’s, is a neurodegenerative disease, which affects the neurons in the brain. The nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord that are responsible for sending and receiving motor signals progressively die off, causing the deterioration of simple motor skills in patients with ALS, such as walking, talking, and eventually speaking and breathing, however thinking is not affected by ALS. Early symptoms cause the person to slowly lose mobility of limbs, but in a matter of a few years, the person loses the mobility of most of their body and will eventually lose the ability to eat and breath, which will ultimately cause death. ALS deteriorates the patient's body, however does not affect the patient's state of mind or sanity while the rest of the body shuts down. People usually get ALS between the ages of 40 and 70. However, there is a growing trend where athletes are getting ALS in their thirties. ALS can be contributed to genetic predisposition, which means that the gene that is responsible for ALS is already in the person’s DNA. In recent studies, however, it was observed that individuals who have had suffered multiple concussions or any other head trauma are

ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) or Lou Gehrig’s Disease is a classified as a degenerative neurological disorder that inhibits motor neurons in the spinal cord and brain to function properly. This disease eventually results in paralysis and imminent death over a period of time. ALS patients have anywhere from a few months, to a couple years to live after diagnosis since their nervous systems are slowly destroyed, rendering the body useless, and sustaining life impossible.

People first need to know what ALS is. ALS is very difficult to diagnose. So far there is no

The word “Amyotrophic” comes from the Greek language meaning “no nourishment”. ALS causes muscle weakness, problems with coordination, stiff muscles, loss of muscles, muscle spasms, over reactive reflexes, and fatigue. The symptoms of ALS increase rapidly, which makes an individual lose control of the muscles and begin having slurred speech. The arms and legs begin to feel weak and tired unexpectedly, while also experiencing cramps. When a medical professional diagnose someone with ALS they have about 2-5 years to live on average. Although about 10% of people with ALS live up to 10 years with the disease, while 25% live up to 5 years and 50% live up to 3 years. The average age that an individual is diagnosed with ALS is 55, but varies from the ages of

ALS is usually described as a neurological disorder that weakens your muscles. In other words, your nerve cells begin to die and you lose voluntary muscle control. It affects every person differently, but it most commonly appears in your upper core

ALS, otherwise known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a disease that attacks the muscles and impacts a person’s physical function. Overtime, the symptoms will

The causes of getting ALS are getting multiple hits to the head, may not be all at once. It can cause serious problems that affects the daily life, for example hard to walk, speak, swallow, and breathe. People are being diagnosed with ALS at the ages of 40-70 with an average of 55 years. New studies state that athletes are being diagnosed at a younger age do to getting multiple hits to the head related to being in sports. After being diagnosed your life expectancy is 3-5 years, however it can increase with therapies and riluzole which is a drug and is very expensive. The disease isn't cured, it just slows down the disease. A well known person who had ALS is Lou Gehrig, he was a baseball player for the New York Yankees and was in the Hall of Fame in 1939. Started showing symptoms of ALS in 1938 and died on June 2nd

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig Disease, it's a disease that affect the neurons in the brain and its ability to communicate with other neurons leading to complications to the spinal cord. This disease affects the victim in various ways it's a progressive disease meaning it starts off slowly

In the case study, Cecil had his diagnosis in a matter of months. The timeline was shortened for the sake of conciseness. How long does it actually take to diagnose a patient with ALS, and why do you think that is? Extra Credit: Find your favorite Ice Bucket Challenge video and send it to your professor, explaining what it

There are 3 main neuropathological findings associated with ALS. First is degeneration of the corticospinal tract that connects axons from primary motor cortex to the motor neurons and extensive degeneration of lower motor neurons. This is connected to the second characteristics, which is loss of Bertz cells that are found in primary motor cortex and connect to the motor neurons. The third characteristics is hypertrophy of glial cells that either lose their original neuroprotective abilities or gain neurotoxic effects.

Summarizing the presented information, all the mentioned methods have added each other enriching the knowledge about the factors resulting in ALS. A factor of crucial importance is that all the methods allowed examining the pathology of ALS in vivo. Furthermore, studies in vivo have been approved boosting the detection of ALS at very early stages including genetic prognoses in the pre-symptomatic stage of the disorder. Thus, combining various methods of medical investigation offers the best opportunities for exploring the pathology of

“The diagnosis of ALS is based primarily on clinical presentation, with supportive data from electrodiagnostic, imaging, and laboratory studies.” Based off of clinical presentation, ALS can be

Causes include gene mutation and will cause problems with your immune system. Your nerve cells are dying causing you to become weaker. At the chemical level gene mutation is the most common. ALS is a disease affecting the brain and nervous system, by sending signals to the spinal cord and nerves throughout the body. Weakness in your hands, arms, feet, legs or the muscles of speech are symptoms. You may experience tripping, dropping things, slurred speech, muscle cramps and twitching uncontrollably. Other symptoms include outbreaks of crying, laughing and difficulty with daily life activities. Diagnosing ALS is hard, because they symptoms are overlooked as a normal thing. 55 years old is the average age to have ALS.

A distinctive characteristic of ALS is that although the motor neurons die, the brain, cognitive functions and sensory neurons stay intact (Porth & Matfin, 2009). This makes the disease especially devastating because patients become trapped inside their dying body, with a fully alert mind, but are unable to move. It is not known what causes the exact death of the motor neurons in the body, but “five percent to 10% of cases are familial; the others are believed to be sporadic” (Porth & Matfin, 2009, p.